GigSwipe

Inspiration

Finding the right job or candidate often feels overwhelming. Job boards overflow with irrelevant listings, and resumes pile up in inboxes. We were inspired by the simplicity of swipe-based matching in dating apps, and thought: what if the same effortless experience could be applied to employment? A quick, intuitive way for small businesses and workers to connect without the friction of long applications or endless scrolling.

What it does

GigSwipe helps employers and employees match with each other using a swiping interface. • For employers: They see curated talent cards with skills, experience, and culture fit indicators, and swipe right to shortlist. • For employees: They browse personalized job recommendations tailored to their skills and preferences, and swipe right on opportunities that excite them. • Behind the scenes, GigSwipe ranks matches using fields like skills, tags, bio descriptions, and preferences to generate smart recommendations.

How we built it

We built GigSwipe with: • Frontend: Next.js + React with modern UI components for swipe and list views. • Backend: Express.js API powered by Node.js to handle profile data, swipes.

Challenges we ran into

• Getting the swipe logic smooth and intuitive on both web and mobile views.
• Designing intuitive UI.
• Debugging Next.js and TypeScript issues.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Accomplishments that we’re proud of • Built a functional prototype in under 24 hours. • Created a clean and modern UI that feels familiar yet unique. • Showcased the potential of swipe-based design applied to recruitment.

What we learned

What we learned • How to design APIs that scale for both talent and employer sides. • The importance of user experience in recruitment—small tweaks in UI can make a huge difference. • Balancing technical design and business logic in hackathon timeframes. • How to quickly troubleshoot TypeScript and module resolution issues in Next.js/Express projects.

What's next for GigSwipe

• AI-driven matching: Use NLP models to analyze job descriptions and candidate bios for deeper compatibility scoring. • Employer dashboards: Provide small businesses with insights into talent pools and candidate interactions. • Candidate visibility controls: Let talent highlight availability, work preferences, and culture fit factors more flexibly. • Scalability: Expand beyond gig work to full-time and contract opportunities across industries. • Monetization: Offer premium features like boosted profiles, advanced filtering, and employer branding.